In frigid Times Square, relief arrives with the new year

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Intrepid revellers from around the world endured hours of waiting in a frigid Times Square on Sunday to witness the glittering New Year's Eve ball make its annual descent at midnight, undeterred and perhaps reassured by a massive police presence.

With New York City in the grip of a bitterly cold Arctic air mass, the experience was made particularly memorable this year for hundreds of thousands of people who braved the bone-chilling conditions to witness a century-old tradition.